Roasted Asparagus with Popping Tom's

I love lots of color on my plate- it just looks so appealing and gorgeous when you have a dinner with a variety of shapes, sizes & colors all over it. You are also getting a wide variety of nutrients and vitamins when you color your plate with the rainbow!

This side-dish is super easy for a week night but is elegant enough to be served for a group- in fact, I'm making this one on Sunday for my family for Easter dinner. The freshness of the lemon zest and the parsley will really impress! And even better is that you basically let the oven do all the work- but YOU take all the credit!

Ingredients & Recipe:
Printable Recipe

• about 2 lbs. of trimmed Asparagus (Trim each piece by breaking off the woody end. Do this by holding each end of the asparagus & start bending it in half until it breaks- it will naturally break off where it needs to-discard the end piece)
• 1 pint of grape tomatoes
• 6 garlic gloves, smashed
• 1 Tbls. olive oil
• S & P
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• the zest of 1 lemon
• cooking spray

Begin by heating your oven to 450 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with a piece of foil and spray very lightly with cooking spray.

Lay the asparagus on the baking sheet, drizzle the olive oil and some S&P to taste- toss the asparagus around to coat evenly. Roast for about 15 minutes total- except for the last 5 minutes of roasting, add the grape tomatoes & give everything a small toss. Once the asparagus begin to get brown and that tomatoes are starting to pop (hence, "Popping Tom's), pull the baking sheet out of the oven- you are almost ready to serve.

While the veggies are roasting, mix the pine nuts, parsley, lemon zest and a little more S & P. Transfer the veggies into a nice serving dish and then sprinkle the mixture over the top, serve and enjoy!